Multidimensional Inequality Research Articles

What are the main factors of fuzzy inequality in Chad?

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of multidimensional (fuzzy) inequalities and marginal changes on the Gini coefficients of various factors. This allows a range of social policies to be specifically targeted to reduce broader inequalities, but these policies are focused primarily on health, education, housing, sanitation, energy and drinking water. It is necessary to target policy areas that are unequally distributed, such as those with access to unevenly distributed drinking water policies. The data are from the Household and Consumption Survey of 6695 households in 2003 and 9259 households in 2011. This paper uses Lerman and Yitzhaki’s method. The results revealed that the main contributors to inequalities over the two periods were health and education. These sources have a potentially significant effect on total inequality. Health increases overall inequalities, but sources such as housing, sanitation and energy reduce them. This article provides resources to disadvantaged and vulnerable target groups. Multiple inequalities are analyzed for different subgroups of households, such as place of residence and the gender of the head of household. Analyzing fuzzy poverty inequalities makes it possible to develop targeted measures to combat poverty and inequality. This study is the first to investigate the sources of Gini’s fuzzy inequality in Chad via data analysis techniques, and in general, it is one of the few studies in Saharan Africa to be interested in this subject. Some development policies in sub-Saharan Africa should therefore focus on different sources (negative effect), sources (positive effect) and the equalization effect.

Multidimensional inequality in Chinese economics academia

Multidimensional inequality in Chinese economics academia

Climate-resilient aquatic food systems require transformative change to address gender and intersectional inequalities

The adverse impacts of climate change on aquatic food systems (AFS) and the people who depend on AFS for livelihood security are inequitably distributed between and within countries. People facing the highest risks and experiencing the severest impacts of climate change are those who already experience multidimensional inequalities in their lives, particularly because of their gender, class, age, indigeneity, ethnicity, caste, religion, and the physical and political conditions that can create additional vulnerabilities. In this paper, we conducted a scoping review of the literature that explores the links between climate change, gender, and other social identities, and AFS. The review was complemented by an analysis of representative data on women and men aquaculture farmers in Bangladesh from 2018 to 2019. We also analysed data from the 2019 Illuminating Hidden Harvest project. The study relied on the gendered agrifood system and aquatic food climate risk frameworks to guide on literature search, review, and data analyses. Our findings show that intersecting identities disadvantage certain AFS actors, particularly young women from minority ethnic groups, and create challenge for them to manage and adapt to climate shocks and stresses. Examples of gender-responsive and transformative interventions are highlighted from our review to showcase how such intersectional disadvantages can be addressed to increase women’s empowerment and social and gender equality.

Health impact evaluation of Aspirational Districts Program in India: Evidence from National Family Health Survey

The Aspirational District Program (ADP) is a unique initiative of Government of India launched in 2018 that aims to reduce inter-district multidimensional inequality. ADP aims to bring the least developed districts to catch up with the rest of the other districts in the country. The program is comprehensive in its scope as it targets improvement of several key development indicators spanning health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development and basic infrastructure indicators. Aspirational districts (ADs) are eligible for enhanced funding and priority allocation of various initiatives undertaken by the central and the state governments. Our research estimates the causal impact of ADP on the targeted health and nutrition indicators using a combination of propensity score matching and difference-in-differences (PSM-DID). We use the fourth and fifth rounds of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data collected in 2015–16 and 2019–21 respectively which serve as the pre and post-treatment data for our analysis. Moreover, we take advantage of the transparent mechanism outlined for the identification of ADs under ADP, which we use for propensity score matching for our PSM-DID. While we observe negative impact of ADP on early initiation of breastfeeding, we believe that the impact is confounded with the effects of Covid-19 since part of NFHS-5 data was collected during the pandemic. However, the negative impact of ADP on early initiation of breastfeeding disappears when we only use pre-covid data (i.e. data for districts from states surveyed before the pandemic). Additionally, using pre-covid data we find a reduction in the prevalence of underweight children younger than 5 years to an extent of 2 to 4 percentage points in ADs as an impact of ADP, which is robust across multiple specification. We do not find evidence of a positive or a negative impact of ADP on any other health and nutrition indicators. Future research efforts should be made towards impact evaluation of all the targeted indicators in order to get a comprehensive unbiased evaluation of ADP.

Methodology and Data Collection Challenges in the Development of Multidimensional Inequality Profiles for Households

The issue of inequality is one that is frequently brought up in conversation in virtually every nation. The problem has been acknowledged for a significant amount of time as one of the most significant and persistent economic and social concerns. In this study, multidimensional inequalities in households in Kompleks Perkampungan Rambong, Baling, Kedah are identified. These inequalities include differences in income, health, education, and well-being. In addition to this, it defines the indicators for each dimension that cover the elements of inequality that are necessary for providing a comprehensive knowledge of household inequality. Nevertheless, challenges need to be conquered during the process of data gathering. One example of such a challenge is the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the imposition of a mobility control order. The problem of the researcher's ability to penetrate the subject of the study is another obstacle that needs to be overcome. This paper also explored the methodological issues and the difficulties in data collecting that arose in the process of achieving multidimensional assessments of inequality among families.

Causes of social exclusion of the elderly: Barriers to inclusive sustainable development

Sustainable development cannot be achieved by leaving behind vulnerable and marginalized groups like older persons who experience multidimensional inequali-ties and social exclusion. This study investigates the root causes, manifestations, and impacts of social exclusion faced by the elderly population in Kazakhstan through an interdisciplinary socio-anthropological lens. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods, including surveys, interviews, and empirical analysis, the research examines subjective experiences of loneliness, isolation, low social en-gagement, and barriers to accessing essential services among older adults. It high-lights how factors like health status, income insecurity, ageism, lack of social support systems, and physical/digital accessibility issues intersect to produce and per-petuate social exclusion. In the course of the work carried out, it was revealed that the process of reducing the phenomenon of social exclusion provides an oppor-tunity to increase the effectiveness of social policy, one of the key tasks of which is to ensure a high standard of living for the elderly. Among the results obtained, factors such as subjective feeling of loneliness, diagnosis of social isolation, low level of social activity, and so on, should be noted. Through a conceptual analysis, the main group of risks was considered, which includes a large list of various areas of public activity. Policy proposals include strengthening social protection, facili-tating intergenerational solidarity, inclusive urban planning, digital inclusion and enhancing accessibility to public services tailored to older persons' needs.

Identifying the Economic Rationale for Criminal Behavior within the Context of Kidnapping for Ransom in Nigeria

This study endeavoured to formulate an economic rationale for why human beings commit crime, particularly the heinous crime against persons known as kidnapping. This forms the major objective of this study. The issue of kidnapping has attained such significance in Nigeria that the country was recently listed as sixth on the global kidnap index, putting Nigeria amongst countries with serious kidnapping problems, behind Philippines, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil and Mexico. Utilising secondary data, the study applied functionalist theoretical assumptions and employed Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA), thereby utilising a qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding of the causes, nature and quantum of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. The theoretical framework that governed this study was Becker’s Rational Choice model, where an individual’s decision to commit a crime is based on the costs and benefits analysis. The study revealed that kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria is a multifaceted phenomenon with social, economic, political, cultural and demographic ramifications. Our study further showed that there are many economic causes of the spate of kidnapping in Nigeria. Prominent among them are unemployment, poverty, low literacy level and high rate of school dropouts, increasing urbanisation, multidimensional inequality, low real income, and spiraling inflationary trends, among others. We recommended that government should tackle this menace head-on by instituting measures to reduce poverty, creating enabling environment for more productivity; thus, leading to increased employment, increasing school enrolment and improving educational infrastructure, reducing rural-urban migration to make the rural areas worthwhile to live in, discouraging ransom payments to free captives and instituting stiffer laws against kidnapping.

Identifying the Economic Rationale for Criminal Behavior within the Context of Kidnapping for Ransom in Nigeria

This study endeavoured to formulate an economic rationale for why human beings commit crime, particularly the heinous crime against persons known as kidnapping. This forms the major objective of this study. The issue of kidnapping has attained such significance in Nigeria that the country was recently listed as sixth on the global kidnap index, putting Nigeria amongst countries with serious kidnapping problems, behind Philippines, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil and Mexico. Utilising secondary data, the study applied functionalist theoretical assumptions and employed Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA), thereby utilising a qualitative approach to gain an in-depth understanding of the causes, nature and quantum of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. The theoretical framework that governed this study was Becker’s Rational Choice model, where an individual’s decision to commit a crime is based on the costs and benefits analysis. The study revealed that kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria is a multifaceted phenomenon with social, economic, political, cultural and demographic ramifications. Our study further showed that there are many economic causes of the spate of kidnapping in Nigeria. Prominent among them are unemployment, poverty, low literacy level and high rate of school dropouts, increasing urbanisation, multidimensional inequality, low real income, and spiraling inflationary trends, among others. We recommended that government should tackle this menace head-on by instituting measures to reduce poverty, creating enabling environment for more productivity; thus, leading to increased employment, increasing school enrolment and improving educational infrastructure, reducing rural-urban migration to make the rural areas worthwhile to live in, discouraging ransom payments to free captives and instituting stiffer laws against kidnapping.

Measuring multidimensional inequality: a new proposal based on the Fourier transform

Measuring multidimensional inequality: a new proposal based on the Fourier transform

The hypermobile and the rest: capital conversion and inclusion/exclusion in an emerging student migration in China

The rise of transnational and transcity education consumption suggests the increasingly important role of the capability to move in order to access quality schooling. Studies have examined the multidimensional inequalities underlying translocal education consumption. However, the role of mobility itself is not sufficiently understood. Two questions are rarely asked: (1) How is the capability to move acquired and practised to bring about translocal schooling consumption? and (2) How does the disparity in the capability to move restructure the established intergenerational capital transmission mechanism conceptualized by Bourdieu? This paper answers by theorizing a mobility-mediated, education-based intergenerational capital transmission mechanism. This framework is built upon a theoretical engagement among John Urry, Pierre Bourdieu, and Neil Smith. We substantiate this framework by examining a student migration regime in Sichuan, China. Attention is paid to the inclusion/exclusion of hypermobility-based schooling consumption regime. Empirical analysis is performed by the comparison of two social groups: (a) the middle-class households who employ mobility to chase after the footloose prime schooling resources and thus materialize their class reproduction strategy and (b) the immobile remainder who are stuck in a location deprived of quality schooling resources.

A Socio-Ecological Approach to Multi-Dimensional Inequality

São Paulo, a city characterised by rapid urbanisation, long-term governmental neglect, and a widening societal gap, faces a complex challenge. Communities within the city experience extreme multidimensional inequality, marked by socio-economic vulnerabilities which stem from their marginalisation from society. In addition, the degradation of critical ecological systems and mounting climate change pressures intensify the risks of environmental disasters, creating a situation of extreme double exposure. This means that vulnerable communities in São Paulo contend with not only socio-economic vulnerabilities but also face heightened environmental risks. While Brazil’s policies took significant steps in the 1980s with the creation of the Estatuto da Cidade (City Statute in 2001) to address social inequality, current solutions are still unable to adequately reduce the multitude of vulnerabilities that marginalised communities face. In order to ensure a high standard of liveability and foster an environment of resilience for São Paulo communities, a comprehensive analysis that exposes the factors that contribute to the creation of multi-dimensional inequality is required. Firstly, recognising that inequality is not just a matter of income but is intricately linked to spatial and environmental dimensions. This policy brief calls for a holistic approach that recognises the interconnectedness of socio-economic vulnerability and environmental risks. By adopting the principles of a socio-ecological approach and conducting a comprehensive socio-spatial analysis, São Paulo can chart a path towards a more equitable and sustainable future for all its residents.

The Impact of Localising Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Selected Sabah Parliamentary Constituencies Through Service-Learning Concept

This article presents the impact evaluationof the Solution Providers Project, a flagship program of The All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia –Sustainable Development Goals (APPGM-SDG) on Civil Society Organization (CSO) Alliance, aimed at reducing inequalities in selected constituencies in Sabah, Malaysia. Focusing on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the lens of impact evaluator, this study adoptsa service-learningconceptual framework and amix-method research design, combining qualitative approaches (evaluator observation, focus group discussions) with numerical assessments on 15 selected constituencies.Findings revealthat while solution providers express over-optimism about reported projects, beneficiaries encounter diverse challenges in experiencing the intended impact. Data from focus group discussions highlights both success stories and obstacles, showcasing skill acquisition through hands-on experiences. However, beneficiaries’ understanding on SDGs is still at a mediocre level, despite emphasis during planning and execution.Overall, the findings from this impact evaluation can be instrumental in informingdecision-making, improvingprogram design, and shedding light on specific policy areas, particularly in reducing multidimensional inequality such as income, consumption inequality and the quality of digital education in the Sabah region.

Multidimensional assessment of regional inequality toward sustainable development

AbstractConsidering various challenges and complexity in sustainable development, there is a need to enhance our understanding of the multidimensionality of spatial inequality (SI). This study proposed a multidimensional equality development index and empirically examined this using a case study of China. The dominant mode of SI has gradually changed from coastal–inland inequality to core–marginal inequality. The five dimensions of SI—economic vitality, innovation capacity, green growth capacity, social amenities, and inclusion and natural amenity—are correlated, and inequality in innovation capacity and economic vitality are major contributors to overall SI in China. A catching‐up effect in development exists across cities. The multidimensional inequalities are rooted in a geographical context and related to size, leading to differentiated evolutionary paths and trends. The proposed multidimensional assessment framework can be applied to other countries to reveal the complexity of inequality and enable the identification and management of barriers.

Spaces of obesity: Exploring clusters of childhood obesity, residential segregation, and food environment in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago, Chile

In 2018, 50.9% of all Chilean children, measured by the "Nutritional Map" of the Ministry of Education, were categorized as overweight or obese, which is evidence of rising obesity rates in Latin America. Discussions on the subject revolve around the tension between agency-determining factors, such as eating and exercise habits, and structural ones, pointing to the correlations between high levels of obesity and poverty. However, there is also a territorial dimension that stands out, especially in cases with high levels of residential segregation, as is the case in many Latin American cities. Here there are potential clusters of more or less obesogenic food environments, where the socioeconomic level, the nutritional status of the sector, and the food supply of the place are correlated. In this article, the spatial dimensions of childhood obesity are mapped, arguing that the segregation of nutritional status overlaps with the nature of multidimensional inequalities in Chilean cities. The study was done by organizing and combining public databases and spatial analysis techniques to create diagnostic maps. The results show a trend towards higher obesity rates as the socioeconomic level of the neighborhood decreases, while food environments vary according to the availability of different combinations of supply (street markets, quantity and size of supermarkets, traditional channels) for each socioeconomic level, suggesting the presence of different types of food environments. The paper concludes with reflections on how the nutritional context has changed since the Covid-19 pandemic and opens a discussion on the role of urban planning in creating nutritional (in)equity conditions.

Class versus race? Multidimensional inequality and intersectional identities in France

ABSTRACT Drawing on a unique survey question about personal identity in France, this article explores how majority and minority populations identify in terms of race/ethnicity and class. While prior studies have focused on one of these identities, the added value of this article is to examine both using a simultaneous equation model. Literature predicts that minorities have stronger ethnoracial identities, while majority members emphasize their class. Our findings confirm this trend, yet we go further by exploring heterogeneity by immigrant generation, origin and socioeconomic status. Guided by theories of assimilation, we show that non-European minorities are more likely to stress ethnoracial identity than Europeans, even among the second generation. Low-SES French majority members are more likely to emphasize ethnoracial items, suggesting a defensive white identity. In contrast, high-SES minorities stress both race/ethnicity and class. The conclusion discusses the intersection between class, race, and migration in France.

EU MECI: A Network-Structured Indicator for a Union of Equality

How are the Member States performing in their challenge toward a fairer and more equal Europe? Based on the data measured by the EU Multidimensional Inequality Monitoring Framework (EU MIMF), we introduce the Multidimensional Equality Complexity Index, EU MECI, derived by structuring the EU MIMF data as a bipartite network of countries and indicators. EU MECI is defined upon the economic complexity methodology, exploiting the network’s centrality metrics to calculate aggregate scores of the capacity of Member States to ‘build a Union of equality’.

Mobility issues and multidimensional inequalities: exploring the limits of the National Strategy for Immigration and Asylum during the COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco

<abstract> <p>In December 2019, the severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 was discovered in China. The virus spread rapidly and, by March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. Scientists expected the African continent to be among the worst affected by the sanitary emergency in terms of prevalence, incidence and mortality. This prediction was refuted by evidence, considering that Africa reported the least number of cases and deaths compared to Europe, Asia and America. The first case in Africa was registered in Egypt on February 14, 2020. By the end of 2021, the continent recorded a cumulative of 7,110,817 cases and 155,505 deaths. Nonetheless, estimates are likely to be distorted due to the lack of available data about the impact of COVID-19 and the limited documentary capacity of most African countries. There are several theories to explain why, contrary to the expected trend, Africa had the fewest COVID-19 incidences compared to other continents. Africa is characterized by a young population, which is notoriously less susceptible to COVID-19, with an average age of 19.7 years. In addition, most of the Africans (59%) live in rural areas, with few opportunities to travel or get in contact with outsiders. Moreover, governments enforced outstanding measures to contain the spread of the virus and safeguard the national economy, such as strengthening their documentary capacity and enforcing effective social safety nets. However, most of these policies have aggravated entrenched patterns of discrimination, making certain populations uniquely vulnerable. Indeed, mobility restrictions and border closures severely affected people with mobile livelihoods. In Morocco, the emergency measures compromised the resilience capacity of sub-Saharan migrants, particularly women and girls. To study the phenomenon of African migration to Morocco, we conducted fieldwork research from October to December 2021, interrupted by the closure of the kingdom's borders, and continued remotely thanks to key informants.</p> </abstract>

Measuring multidimensional inequality: a proposal based on the Fourier transform

Measuring multidimensional inequality: a proposal based on the Fourier transform

Digital infrastructure strategies: the case of the province of Caserta

<abstract> <p>The digital economy and the associated productivity gains generated by the diffusion of the Internet are considered fundamental components of growth models. Scientific reflection converges in considering balanced access to digital services as a diriment factor for the promotion of competitiveness, equity, economic development and social and environmental sustainability. Although the availability of infrastructure is not sufficient to achieve the full development of the territory and the community, it is nevertheless an unavoidable prerequisite for today's and future technological and digital applications and, therefore, investigating the type of association between the presence of communication networks and the socio-economic structure of the territories is essential to understanding the very nature of multidimensional inequalities and their spatial and geographical distribution, within a framework that sees infrastructure as a conversion factor and means of development for capabilities. Based on the theories of social exclusion, the capability approach and critical theory, the research presented aims to investigate, through the analysis of a case study, the possible association between the state of progress of broadband implementation and specific territorial configurations, considering also different variables of a geographical nature.</p> </abstract>

The regional difference, dynamic evolution, and multidimensional inequality of China's ecological environment quality from the concept of ecological resilience.

Based on the concept of ecological resilience, this paper systematically constructs an evaluation system of ecological environment quality and dynamically measures the ecological environment quality (EQI) and its dimensional oriented indices: environmental pollution production (PPI), environmental pollution management (PMI), and ecological environment restoration (ERI). Then, the dynamic evolution of EQI, PPI, PMI, and ERI could be analyzed by the kernel density estimation and Markov chain, and the multidimensional inequality and its sources of ecological environment quality are studied by Maasoumi index. The main conclusions are as follows: China's EQI shows a tendency of slow growth despite swings. In terms of dimensional-oriented indices, PPI exhibits a slow decreasing trend, and PMI and ERI exhibit an ongoing upward trend. There are showing signs of sustained improvement of EQI across regions, especially in the southwest and northwest. Meanwhile, EQI has the evolutionary characteristics of increasing internal regional synergy and inter-regional differentiation effects. The multidimensional inequality of EQI shows a downward trend first and then an upward trend, and its contribution decreases in turn with "PPI-ERI-PMI." There are obvious differences in the multidimensional inequality of EQI across regions. The intra-regional inequality is absolutely dominant. The marginal contribution of this paper is to construct an evaluation framework of ecological environment quality based on the concept of ecological resilience and to conduct empirical research on China's ecological environment quality, so as to further explain the spatial distribution, evolutionary path, and formation mechanism of China's ecological environment quality.